


In Your Philosophy

by ladyoneill



Series: Lady O's Teen Wolf Bingo Stories [71]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Derek Has Issues, Future Fic, Gen, Stiles Has Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-26
Updated: 2014-05-26
Packaged: 2018-01-26 14:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1691237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyoneill/pseuds/ladyoneill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Nogitsune and Kate, Derek and Stiles start hanging out together, sometimes in silence, sometimes actually talking. It's tense but nice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Your Philosophy

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Cotton Candy Bingo prompt: body language, which was hard. My last prompt! I got a black out!

"You know, you're really tense all the time."

Derek glares at him. Stiles snorts.

"Yeah, and angry. You're like clenched tight, dude."

"Don't call me dude, idiot."

"Now, me, I'm tense for other reasons, like being the lone human in a werewolf pack and having been possessed by a Japanese fox demon that vomited me out and I'm still not sure if this is my original body or not."

Derek tenses even more and Stiles sighs. "Sorry, sometimes I blurt. Makes me feel...more me."

"It's okay."

"Yeah, you're just saying that. I know I annoy you." He annoys everyone; it's his thing.

"You don't annoy me."

As he swivels back and forth in his desk chair, Stiles glances at Derek, then stops and really looks at him. "You mean that?"

The werewolf's back goes up. "Yes, I mean it."

"Huh." Slowly Stiles relaxes and Derek does as well, finally moving away from where he's been holding up the wall to sit on Stiles' bed.

They've taken to doing this since they defeated the Kate bitch for the second time--spending evenings just hanging out together while Stiles does homework or research and Derek reads and sometimes helps. The evenings always start out awkward--hence the tense comment--but then they relax. Sometimes they even talk.

"How are you doing?" And usually the talks start off awkward, too, especially if they're initiated by Derek who still has trouble actually using words, but Stiles appreciates the effort.

"Okay, I guess. Therapy with Morell still sucks, but I guess it's helping. You know, you could..."

"I can't trust anyone not Pack," Derek interrupts, his voice a soft, sad growl, and Stiles nods in acknowledgment because sometimes he can't either.

"So, you can talk to me."

Shrugging, Derek turns to recline against the headboard and steeple his fingers on his stomach.

"Oy, shoes off."

A slight smirk forms on the werewolf's face as he kicks off his shoes, and Stiles takes that as a win. Derek so rarely smiles a real smile, but then neither does Stiles. He's learned to put on a mask with nearly everyone, except he doesn't try to hide behind it with Derek.

They're both damaged and they recognize that in each other.

"So, what are you doing tonight?" Derek's actually curious. Stiles knows he doesn't make small talk, even with him.

"Analyzing five of Shakespeare's sonnets and writing a paper on their motifs, whether similar or different. I've already taken all the notes; just need to pull it all together. Whatcha reading?"

Derek draws a thin paperback from his jacket pocket before slipping out of the sleeves and tossing it aside. "Solzhenitsyn's 'One Day In The Life Of Alexander Denisovich'."

"Sounds Russian." 

He's awarded with a snort. "Brilliant guess. It's the story of a prisoner in a Stalinist labor camp. The story itself is interesting, but the most amazing thing about it is that it was published openly and widely distributed in the Soviet Union in 1962."

"That was allowed?"

"Apparently."

"Huh. Can I read it when you're done?"

"Sure. But, now you have a paper to write."

As if he's being majorly oppressed, Stiles sighs and spins around to his computer and his handwritten notes. "I just wish I knew the point of this. I mean, okay, if you're going to be an English teacher, but..."

"Everyone should be well-rounded."

Spinning back, Stiles gives him a skeptical look and Derek waves his book at him. "Okay, you're well-rounded?"

"Who's the one reading Russian literature for fun?"

"...Point," he concedes and watches Derek relax even more. "You know, I don't even know if you graduated high school let alone went to college."

"I did, to both. I have a B.A. in pre-Socratic Philosophy from NYU, probably one of the most useless degrees you can get." The werewolf makes a face and Stiles makes one back.

"Self-deprecation is my thing, Derek." 

"I can explain to you the differences inherent in Pythagoreanism and the philosophies of Heraclitus but I'm pretty sure they have no real world applications."

"Is that the same guy who came up with the Pythagorean theorem?"

"Yes."

"Okay, that's kind of cool. Why did you choose that?"

This is a side to Derek he's never imagined and he's really interested. As he starts to talk, Derek relaxes again and his face becomes the most animated Stiles has ever seen.

It's kind of enthralling.

Though the philosophy is way over his head.

End


End file.
